Three UK inTouch App Goes Live as Mobile Data Usage Climbs

Mobile operator Three UK has announced that their new App (Three inTouch), which allows customers to talk or text using their existing allowances via a WiFi based wireless Internet connection, is now live. In addition, the operator has revealed stats for data usage on its 3G and 4G based Mobile Broadband network.

The Three inTouch app, which is similar to EE’s rival product (here), is being offered free to all contract, SIM and Pay As You Go (PAYG) customers. Elsewhere the operator reported that the average data usage per customer on their network is “significantly higher than the industry average” and stood at 2.6GB (GigaBytes) per customer per month in June, compared to 1.8GB and 2.2GB in June 2013 and December 2013 respectively.

It’s interesting to note that this growth rate is similar to what we saw on fixed home broadband lines some 6-8 years ago, back when ADSLMax (up to 8Mbps) lines were still quite popular and only just starting to make way for ADSL2+ (up to 20Mbps). Should this trend continue then it’s not impossible to conceive of a 25GB average during the 5G deployment phase sometime post-2020.